The Honeymoon is Over

With syllabus week over, I am excited to be finishing up week two. Not because it has been a bad week but because the end of week two means WEEK 1 of HAWKEYE FOOTBALL! Sports are fun at the University of Iowa. It is my personal way of escaping my real world obligations and for a few hours just pure enjoyment with thousands of Hawkeye fans cheering our heads off. You do not need to love football to love being at Kinnick Stadium. The stadium is electric, the chants, the fight song, and who could forget my favorite part… The Victory Polka. I am a big believer in the quote “Don’t count the days, make the days count” however… Three days until kickoff. See you at Kinnick.

-Alec

I Looked So Good A Week Ago

Now that we are officially out of honeymoon week I look in the mirror and wonder what am I doing here? Before classes started it was so easy for me to be excited about my new classes, the new year and all of the new opportunities. Quick bragging moment, I took a selfie a week ago during On Iowa! training and it is honestly one of the best selfies ever. My skin is glowing and I look so happy. Currently drowning under piles of physics and differential equations problems I’m lucky if I remember eyeliner in the morning. My selfie game is weak.

A week ago I took a gleeful summer photo. Now I am chasing my education with full force (physics pun). Sometimes it feels like a huge trade off between summer and classes; this is how I am transitioning. I looked so good a week ago, but I know that I will look even better in this new semester. This transition is an integral (calculus pun) and inevitable part of my experience this semester. Even though my selfie game changes from time to time, I know I will be a Hawkeye forever. Isn’t that what really matters?

-AP

I Really Should Get A Planner

If you are at all like me, then this past week you signed up for 300 organizations and are unsure of how to manage that time. Two thoughts are likely going though your head. The first is “I’m super excited to get involved and meet people!” The second probably is “Oh no, why did I sign up for so much.” Although you might not be able to do 300 orgs, if you manage the time correctly, you can keep doing the ones that are most interesting to you, without costing yourself sleep.

For this year, the more I sign myself up for, the more I find myself booking back to back meetings, overlapping sessions, and missing deadlines. It’s only been one week, which is really problematic. I always trust that I can remember everything in my brain, although the saying I’ve forgotten more then I could ever remember has never reigned more true for me then these past two weeks. Every year I thought to myself “I should really get a planner.” So, I did what I should have done all along…I went to Target and bought the 10 dollar planner that spoke most to my heart.

It was admittedly droll and slow to fill out, but now, I know when and where I’m supposed to be. Although I don’t have a lot of time during the day, this time management, a skill most essential to college, has helped me stress a little bit less, and make the chaos that is college more organized.